Effect of examination of power of Attorney in land acquisition case
The learned Advocate for the appellant submitted that on behalf of the claimant there was no evidence before the reference Court for arriving at any conclusion about the inadequacy of the price of land acquired or price of land in the surroundings, in view of the categorical admission of the Power of Attorney Shri Ayyubkhan that not he, but his father, had knowledge about the proceedings before the Land Acquisition Officer. The learned Advocate submitted that Shri Ayyubkhan was a student at the relevant time and, therefore, his evidence about the price of land is irrelevant and could not have been relied upon. He drew our attention to a judgment in Janki Vashdeo v. Indusind Bank Ltd. reported at , in order to exclude evidence of Shri Ayyubkhan from consideration since according to the learned Advocate Shri Ayyubkhan was not conversant with the facts. There can be no doubt that a holder of Power of Attorney can depose to only facts within his knowledge and cannot depose about the facts within knowledge of the person who has given him power of attorney. However, in this case, we do not see as to how exclusion of evidence of Shri Ayyubkhan, or for that matter tendering of evidence of the claimant herself, would change complexion of the case. The question whether the land acquired was appropriately valued by the Land Acquisition Officer would have to be decided with reference to the consideration of instances of sale, proximate in point of time as well as space, to the land in question. Therefore, we see no force in the objection of the learned Advocate for the appellant to the judgment in question on the ground that the claimant herself was not examined.
Bombay High Court
Maharashtra Industrial ... vs Shaikh Khatinabi Wd/O Abdul ... on 6 December, 2007
Equivalent citations: 2008 (2) BomCR 34, 2008 (110) Bom L R 63
Bench: K Rohee, R Chavan
https://www.lawweb.in/2013/08/effect-of-examination-of-power-of.html
